Technical Field
The present invention relates to a cosmetic container having an inner lid provided with a cosmetic penetrable sheet material such as a net.
Related Art
A cosmetic container is known which has an inner lid attached to an upper end side of a container body and provided with an elastic net in a tensioned state. This cosmetic container is configured such that when the net is pushed downward with a puff or the like, the cosmetic contained in the container body penetrates through the net. And the user takes off the penetrated cosmetic with the puff and the like for use. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open publication No. 2005-224398 (literature 1), Japanese Patent Application Laid-open publication No. 2008-194190 (literature 2), Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. Hei7-43575 (literature 3), and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open publication No. Hei9-191930 (literature 4), for example, describe such cosmetic containers.
In the inner lid used for conventional net equipped containers such as those described in literatures 1 to 3, an annular frame is used to hold the net. The inner peripheral portion of the frame is used to attach to the outer peripheral portion of the net and the outer peripheral portion of the frame is made to attach to the side of the container body such that the bottom outer circumference of the frame to come into intimate contact with the inner face of the cosmetic storing space of the container body. However, such structure may make it difficult for the cosmetic below the annular frame to be taken out through the net especially when the cosmetic has high viscosity. This will not allow the cosmetic to be used without waste. Even when the cosmetic is of low viscosity, the container body may have to be tilted so that the cosmetic is brought to the center below the annular frame. And this may lead to poor use of the cosmetic. The net equipped container disclosed in literature 4 has substantially only the space below the net used as the cosmetic storing space without providing any cosmetic storing space under the frame. Specifically this net equipped container has a thick frame supporting the net with the bottom end of the frame coming into contact with the bottom of the container body. This means that, the cosmetic storing space of the container body cannot be sufficiently used. In other words, a container larger than necessary is used for containing the same amount of cosmetic. Additionally, since the bottom end of the frame comes into contact with the bottom of the container body, the cosmetic may leak out from the container body through the interface where the inner face of the container body and the lower end face or the outer circumferential face of the frame come into contact when the contained cosmetic has a low viscosity.
A so-called “refill container” is also used as the cosmetic container. The refill container is used by being attached in a container (hereafter called “case”) that serves as the outer cover body and this refill container is taken out of the case when the cosmetic inside the refill container becomes empty. Thereafter the case can be reused by attaching in the case once again a newly purchased refill container in which cosmetic is filled. Many are so-called “compact cases” having a mirror on the back face the outer lid of the case where the compact cases themselves are made small and thin for portable use. As a matter of course, such compact cases have a reduced storing capacity and when the refill container is a net equipped container there arises a desire for allowing the cosmetic to be used without waste. Additionally, for a case where a net equipped container that usually does not have an airtight structure stores cosmetic in the case, the net equipped containers having air permeability require a hermetic structure that can close the opening of the container body in an airtight manner so that the cosmetic does not become dry. Further, measures require to be taken with the refill container for preventing the cosmetic from leaking out through the interface where the inner face of the container body and the outer circumferential face of the inner lid come into contact. This enables to overcome a problem where the cosmetic is stuck to the rim of the container body or the upper face of the net when a new refill container is opened spoiling the appearance of the new item which in turn annoying the user.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a cosmetic container allowing cosmetics to be used without waste as well as preventing unintended leaking of the cosmetics and also being appropriate as a refill container.